18 August 2008: Virat Kohli Makes His International Debut for India
On this day 11 years ago a young Virat Kohli made his international debut for India against Sri Lank
Created - 5 years ago
On this day 11 years ago a young Virat Kohli made his international debut for India against Sri Lanka at Dambulla, kicking off a career that would see him score runs for fun, particularly when his team was chasing.
Kohli's international debut would end in defeat, however, as the home team consigned them to a eight-wicket loss.
Batting first, India could only manage a score of 147 before being bundled out in 46 overs. Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan did the majority of the damage for Sri Lanka, picking six wickets between them.
His debut saw Kohli open the batting alongside fellow Delhi batsman Gautam Gambhir. However, Kohli's he was able to score only 12 runs before Nuwan Kulasekara trapped him leg before wicket.
In response, Sri Lanka got the required runs in 34.2 overs. They lost both openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara cheaply early on, but Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Kapugedera strung together a 102-run partnership to end the match with minimal fuss.
Kohli's debut match wasn't the most memorable one for Indian fans but the current Indian captain has since enjoyed a stellar career for the Men in Blue across all formats.
He has now scored a staggering 20502 runs in all formats of international cricket, with 20018 of those runs coming from 2010 onwards. This made him the first player to score 20000 runs in international cricket in a single decade.
Kohli has scored a combined 68 international centuries with 25 of those coming in Tests and a staggering 43 of those coming in ODI cricket, as well as 91 half-centuries (20 in Tests, 54 in ODIs and 21 in T20Is).
At 30 years old, Kohli still has a few years of international cricket left in him and it will be interesting to see how many records he can break before he finally hangs up his boots.
Kohli's international debut would end in defeat, however, as the home team consigned them to a eight-wicket loss.
Batting first, India could only manage a score of 147 before being bundled out in 46 overs. Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan did the majority of the damage for Sri Lanka, picking six wickets between them.
His debut saw Kohli open the batting alongside fellow Delhi batsman Gautam Gambhir. However, Kohli's he was able to score only 12 runs before Nuwan Kulasekara trapped him leg before wicket.
In response, Sri Lanka got the required runs in 34.2 overs. They lost both openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara cheaply early on, but Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Kapugedera strung together a 102-run partnership to end the match with minimal fuss.
Kohli's debut match wasn't the most memorable one for Indian fans but the current Indian captain has since enjoyed a stellar career for the Men in Blue across all formats.
He has now scored a staggering 20502 runs in all formats of international cricket, with 20018 of those runs coming from 2010 onwards. This made him the first player to score 20000 runs in international cricket in a single decade.
Kohli has scored a combined 68 international centuries with 25 of those coming in Tests and a staggering 43 of those coming in ODI cricket, as well as 91 half-centuries (20 in Tests, 54 in ODIs and 21 in T20Is).
At 30 years old, Kohli still has a few years of international cricket left in him and it will be interesting to see how many records he can break before he finally hangs up his boots.
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